Joined in marriage on 17 February 1909 were Jozef Mirota (1882 -1961), and Zofia Szczerba, (1879 – 1953). They were married in Carnegie, Allegheny County, PA, after meeting each other only two weeks before. I love how independent Zofia appears here. She looks to be holding a prayerbook, and is still keeping a bit of distance between her and and her brand-new husband. Jozef looks a bit apprehensive also, but they had many, many years of wedded bliss, and lived happily ever after.

Part of the fun in doing genealogy is being a detective as you dig for facts. Sometimes one photograph helps you find out a fact for another. Our family had this small portrait, with nothing else written on it, and a larger framed portrait of Zofia and Jozef from the actual wedding. That one was behind glass and we didn’t want to disturb or destroy the portrait by removing it from the frame. But we also had a photograph from their 26th anniversary in a photograph album. Carefully taking that picture out of the album revealed the marriage date on the back.

Our Polish family would quickly switch from English to Polish whenever we, as little children, were around. “Little pitchers have big ears” was often said, and the adults were careful what was said around us. We were often told “Bądź cicho” Be quiet! We were little magpies so we would go out to play rather than sit quietly. How I wish that I could hear the old stories once more.